living positively

it wasn’t like it is in the porn films…

It’s about twenty-four hours since I went into hospital as there was blood and pus oozing from an abscess, and the doctor on call told me to head for the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast.

So, BelDoc told me to go to Accident and Emergency, so a friend of my boyfriend came over from north Belfast to east Belfast to take us to west Belfast and the RVH, I suspect that we did make it into south Belfast at some point but I’m not quite sure of the constituency boundaries.

So then we sat in the waiting room, then I saw a nurse in triage who remembered me from the somewhat similar trip in March – then back to the waiting room.

Eventually about 1.00 a.m., I was called through, and taken into a cubicle… eventually I was seen by a doctor. The first challenge was to understand what he was saying, but that was only because he was not obviously from this country. Then, having shown him the abscesses he decided that he would need to carry out a short rectal examination to check that the abscess was not attached to my spleen. He asked if he could put a finger up there….

…having recovered my composure after nearly rolling off the trolley with laughter, he proceeded to carry this out – and it wasn’t at all like all the ones in the porn films… Yes you do know which ones I mean.

Anyway, left on trolley for hours… moved to ward about 4 in morning, and then operated on at about 11.30a.m. Discharged at about 21.00. Not bad for Belfast HSC Trust. In fact, very good.

Now I’m back in east Belfast about to start the recovery and looking forward to the district nurse arriving in the morning (hopefully!).

Conference believes that as stated in the preamble to the party’s constitution, we ‘exist to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society, in which we seek to balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community’ and ‘reject all prejudice and discrimination’ including those issues which relate to gender and sexual orientation.

Conference notes that:

i) At present no two individuals of the same sex may enter into a marriage in the United Kingdom, and that no two individuals of mixed sex may enter into a civil partnership.
ii) Under the terms of the Gender Recognition Act (2004) any individual seeking gender recognition or to change their gender as legally recognised cannot remain in a marriage or civil partnership.

Conference recognises that:

a) The Deputy Prime Minister, and Leader of the Liberal Democrats, the Rt Hon Nick Clegg MP, said in Pink News on 1 7th February 2010: ‘I support gay marriage. Love is the same, straight or gay, so the civil institution should be the same too. All couples should be able to make that commitment to one another’.
b) The moves by the new coalition government to allow ceremonies for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender couples to be performed in religious buildings are very much welcomed.
c) Whether someone believes in marriage, civil partnership or commitment, any religious organisation
or building whether a church, mosque or temple which chooses to have civil partnerships
celebrated at their religious places of worship will be in the future able to do so.
d) To grant rights to one group of individuals which are denied to others based on sexual orientation and gender is unconscionable.
e) The current arrangements with regards to marriage are discriminatory in nature.
f) Non-UK same-sex marriages are currently equated to civil partnership in the UK, not
marriage.

Conference believes that as stated in the preamble to the party’s constitution, we ‘exist to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society, in which we seek to balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community’ and ‘reject all prejudice and discrimination’ including those issues which relate to gender and sexual orientation.

Conference therefore calls on the British government to:

1. Open both marriage and civil partnerships to both same-sex and mixed-sex couples.
2. To allow approved religious and humanist who wish to do so to legally solemnise and celebrate
same-sex marriage and civil partnerships in places of religious worship.
3. To allow those individuals who wish to seek gender recognition or change their legally
recognised gender to remain in their current marriage or civil partnership without changing
any legal requirements.
4. To establish a simple and straightforward process by which any existing civil partnership may be converted into a marriage or vice-versa without the need to dissolve the civil partnership or proceed with a divorce.
5. To automatically recognise all non-UK same-sex marriages as marriage in the UK, and to subsequently remove non-UK same-sex marriages from the current schedule which equates them to civil partnerships in the UK.
6. To continue to maintain the schedule equating non-UK same-sex civil unions or registered partnerships as civil partnerships in the UK.
7. To add non-UK opposite-sex civil unions or registered partnerships to the schedule equating them to Civil Partnerships in the UK.
8. To openly promote and encourage recognition of same-sex marriage and civil partnerships across the European Union, especially in countries where currently no laws exist.

Conference motion to be debated tomorrow (21 Sept. 2010)

The three of us here have also eaten takeaway (again) and know that this cannot continue.

I had better email my social worker tonight to ensure that she knows that I am no longer in hospital and that she can visit me here.

Published by John McFarland Campbell

Irish, formerly known as Michael, living in Co. Laois with his husband Andrew and their three cats. Also interested in first aid, heraldry, Scouting, and occasionally to be found at the organ or in a bell tower.
View all posts by John McFarland Campbell